by Stan
“I’m here,” said a loud clear voice coming down the stairs. “Let them come in, Miz McGrizz.”
Miz McGrizz showed the cubs into the living room. Mr. Dweebish was already sitting in a comfy chair. But he didn’t look very comfortable. His face was all red. So were his ears, his hands, his knees, and his everything else.
Sister was shocked. “But why, Mr. Dweebish?” she asked. “Why did you do it?”
Mr. Dweebish let out a big sigh. “Guess,” he said.
“I know,” said Brother. “Innocent until proven guilty. Right?”
“Smart cub,” said Mr. Dweebish. “I wanted to show Too-Tall what it’s like to be accused of a crime he didn’t commit. I thought that might give him more respect for democracy. And I also wanted to teach the rest of you a lesson—a lesson about accusing someone of committing a crime just because he’s unpopular and has been in trouble before.
“Today, in Foundations of Democracy, I was going to tell everyone about my experiment and give back all the stolen goods to their owners. I never expected this to happen.” He held up his red hands.
“Wow,” said Sister. “I’ll bet Mr. Honeycomb is really mad at you. And Mr. Grizzmeyer too. You sent them on a wild goose chase. And come to think of it, you invaded cubs’ privacy too. And you stole stuff! I thought I’d never see my Bear Scout flashlight again!”
“Shhh,” whispered Brother. “The poor guy feels dumb enough already.” Then he said, “There’s something I’ve been wondering about, Mr. Dweebish. How did you get the combinations?”
“Simple,” said the red-faced teacher. “I just told Mr. Honeycomb I needed to see the social studies quizzes they’d been using. He gave me the key. I took the combinations list, copied it, then put it back under lock and key.”
“Way out!” said Freddy.
“Way out of line, you mean,” said Mr. Dweebish. He might have been blushing. But who could tell? “Sister is absolutely right. I invaded privacy. I committed crimes. I broke the rules. I did all the things I’ve been telling you cubs in Foundations of Democracy not to do. All because of a silly experiment. I let my love of demonstrating ideas to my students get the best of me.”
“Probably not the first time,” Brother whispered to Freddy.
“Or the last,” Freddy whispered back.
“Anyway,” continued Mr. Dweebish, “I’m very sorry indeed for all the trouble I’ve caused. Tomorrow I’m going back to the University. I don’t think anyone at Bear Country School will trust me after this. I’ll turn all the stolen goods over to Mr. Honeycomb. He’ll see that they get to their owners.”
“Mr. Dweebish?” said Sister. “If it isn’t too much trouble, would you give me my flashlight right now?”
“And my petrified wood?” asked Freddy.
“Cool it, guys,” said Brother. “Let’s leave him alone. You’ll get your stuff soon enough.”
The cubs said good-bye to Mr. Dweebish and wished him luck at the university. Then they headed back to school. By now their stomachs were grumbling from hunger.
Mr. Dweebish did indeed go back to Bear Country University the next day. And the cubs did get back their stolen goods. Everything at Bear Country School returned to normal. More or less. And soon the cubs of Teacher Bob’s class forgot all about the trouble caused by Mr. Dweebish, The Red-Handed Thief.
But they never forgot two very important lessons from Foundations of Democracy. The first was that social studies doesn’t have to be boring. And the second was that in Bear Country, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
Even Too-Tall Grizzly.
Excerpt from The Berenstain Bears and the Great Ant Attack
Chapter One
The Balance of Nature
“How about if we go to a movie tonight? There’s a terrific film playing at the Beartown multiplex,” said Brother Bear one evening as the Bear family was having supper.
“We might just do that,” said Papa. “What’s this terrific film called?”
“It’s called Giant Insects from Outer Space,” said Brother.
“Well, you can count me out,” said Sister, who had a problem with insects.
“That’s okay,” said Brother. “You can take in another film. They always have a G-rated film for scaredy-bears.”
“All right, then, Mr. Smart-face. You can count me in!” said Sister.
So the Bear family cleaned up the supper things and went to see Giant Insects from Outer Space. It was about these giant insects who came in spaceships to attack Earth. They were as big as school buses and looked like a cross between a cockroach and an ant, with a little rhinoceros beetle thrown in.
It was a very scary movie!
Sister was proud of getting through it (she did so by covering her eyes during the scariest parts). And she was proud of getting through the night without having a movie nightmare.
But just outside of town, not more than a mile away from the Bear family’s tree house, a certain professor and his genius nephew were in their laboratory working on a secret experiment that just might turn into a real living nightmare.
The next afternoon, the Bear family was sitting around the tree house living room relaxing. Brother was playing a hand-held monster game. Papa was reading the newspaper. Mama was looking through a garden magazine. And Sister was thinking about Giant Insects from Outer Space. As she sat there thinking about one of the scarier parts, a small spider let itself down on a strand of silk right in front of her face.
“YIPE!” screamed Sister, sending the frightened spider scurrying back up the strand of silk.
“My goodness,” said Papa. “There’s no need to be afraid of spiders. Spiders have more reason to be afraid of you than you have to be afraid of them.”
“I’m not afraid of them,” said Sister. “I just don’t like them.”
Papa went back to reading his newspaper and Sister went back to thinking about Giant Insects from Outer Space. After thinking awhile, she said, “Papa?”
“Yes, dear,” said Papa.
“Why do there have to be insects?”
“I’m not sure I understand your question, my dear,” said Papa.
“Well, I just mean why do there have to be insects? They’re so buggy and icky. I mean like creepy spiders and itchy mosquitoes and those nasty green flies that bite. I mean, what good are they? Why do we have to have them?”
“That’s a very interesting question,” said Papa. “And I suppose the best answer is that they’re all part of nature’s great scheme. All those icky, buggy creatures, all creatures and plants, in fact, and even the Earth itself, make up what’s called the balance of nature.”
“That’s right,” said Brother. “That’s what Teacher Bob says. We learned about that in biology. He says that if the bees and the butterflies didn’t carry pollen from plant to plant, we wouldn’t have fruits and vegetables.”
“Or flowers,” said Mama, looking up from her gardening magazine. “And I might add, if there were no mosquitoes, dragonflies, and water bugs for the trout to eat, we wouldn’t be having honey-cured trout for supper tonight.”
“Yum!” said Brother.
“Thank goodness for the balance of nature,” said Papa. Which was all very well, but Sister still had a problem with insects.
Sister Bear wasn’t the only one who had a problem with insects. Farmer Ben, whose farm was just down the road from the Bear family’s tree house, had a big problem with insects. Especially with the ones that ate his crops. The mere mention of the corn borer, the wheat worm, or the barley moth sent Farmer Ben into a fury. While Farmer Ben had a good heart, he also had a terrible temper. Just the mention of those insects made him wave his arms, jump up and down, and say words that burnt the very air.
If the Bear family had looked out a window that afternoon, they would have seen Farmer Ben doing just that. He was with Crop Duster Joe. They were at the place where Ben’s corn, wheat, and barley fields met. Joe had the same argument with Ben every year. He was waiting for Ben to ca
lm down so he could tell him the same thing he had told him the year before and the year before that. “I can’t use anything stronger, Ben. It’s against the law. I can only dust with approved chemicals, and DDT isn’t approved. Try to understand. All the environmental folks are trying to do is preserve the balance of nature. And besides, if I used DDT, I could lose my license.”
“Well, dang your license! Dang the balance of nature!”
Mrs. Ben, the only one who could calm Ben down when he was in a temper, had heard the ruckus all the way from the farm-house. “Now, come on, Ben. It doesn’t do any good to rant and rave. Come on back to the house. I’ve got some warm milk with a dash of strawberry honey waiting for you. And, Joe…”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“You just dust the crops the same as you did last year.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Back Ad
About the Authors
Stan and Jan Berenstain began writing the Berenstain Bears series in 1962, with The Big Honey Hunt. Since then, more than 250 Berenstain Bears books have been published and sales of the series are nearing 300 million. Stan and Jan have left behind a legacy of arguably the best-selling children’s book series ever. Making the books has long been a family affair, with son Mike Berenstain writing and illustrating new stories about everyone’s favorite bear family. You can visit the Berenstains online at www.berenstainbears.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Copyright
BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE RED-HANDED THIEF
Copyright © 1993 by Berenstain Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
EPub Edition © 2013
ISBN 978-0-06-218889-2
EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062188892
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
Originally published in 1993 by Random House, Inc.
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollins.com